Update 1-18-11

Hi,

As mentioned last week, this week, some appreciative notes about the articles about Booker Gibson:

From Lynn Nudelman Villagran:  Thank you so much for sending this to all of us.  It is fascinating and very interesting.  Congratulations to Booker on the publication of these wonderful articles in the Long Island Herald.

From Peter Shapiro:  Thanks so much for including these articles in the Update.  While I haven't been back to Long Island for a long time and probably haven't seen Booker Giibson since 1962, he just looks like an older version of the guy who taught us how enjoy a wide variety of music.  Whenever my wife and I went to the Los Angeles Opera, I recalled that part of Booker's homework was to listen to opera on WQXR.  Between Booker and Bob Liest, and with my mom's encouragement, I think I became fairly well-rounded in appreciating music and am all the better for the experience.  Best regards to everyone, from Rancho Santa Fe.

From Tom McPartland:  This is great. Thanks for sharing the Herald columns. I'm going to pass them along to my fellow alumni in the class of '64.

From Ellen Sue Brody Pilger:  Gosh, these articles about Booker's experiences are wonderful.  Good to know that freedom for every individual is inching along in the right direction and that the flowering of liberty at our very core can be accomplished by simply being who we are in the face of limited thinking.  Booker, you are an inspiration, and you have my admiration.

From Marilyn Eisbrouch:  Those were wonderful articles about Booker Gibson.  It's about time someone finally mentioned race.  Booker's presence at South at that time was definitely unique, and it benefited us all.  I always thought how heroic he was to be a "first," and wondered what he had to go through to get there and to stay there.
    Since I was not a music person, I did not benefit the way most of the alumni in the articles mentioned.  But I did benefit, as probably did so many of us, from Booker's warm and outstanding personality and by his being the beginning of a bridge between our predominantly white environment and the black community. Perhaps, he was one of the seeds that led to my many years of working with the black community.  
Although music was not one of my favored subjects, I always looked forward to, enjoyed, and felt safe in Booker Gibson's class.

From Robert Fiveson:  I found Booker Gibson's story both uplifting, surprising, and also in synch with my sense of the man -- a trailblazer, unique; brave. talented.
    I wonder if there might not be other interesting, surprising, and even uplifting stories of other people in our class and school?  They don't have to be quite as ennobling as Booker's nor should they read like a litany of accomplishments or just a narrative resume.  They could be more about our life journeys, the arch that makes us stand here now as who we have become.
    In November, I lost a friend in Panama and another, old, deep, love in the United States.  Two days ago, I learned that a dear friend from undergraduate school has early-onset Alzheimer's.  Now -- NOW -- is the time to tell the stories, before they echo, unheard, into the abyss of never being able to be stated again.
    Who are you?  Who am I?  What concrete seas have we navigated, and what suns have set upon our sails, in calm, storm, or darkest nights of hope?  This, too, is our legacy to each other.  Whether you're a stay-at-home mom, a bean counter, or a hobnobbler with celebs, we all have a story of our journey, the start of which was our time to cross-pollinate in the hot house of Valley Stream and thus flourish.

[Rich -- This is as good a place to start telling those stories as any.  And once they're written, they can be further shared with other people.  So, if you're comfortable with the idea, just send the stories in.]

In other notes:

From Jean Cohen Oklan:  Bragging Rights!  I thought some New York City area alumni would like to know that my brother, Bern Cohen, wrote and is performing in a one-man-show titled ABBIE -- about Abbie Hoiffman.  Click on the following link to get the low-down on how this all came about, and go see the show!   And Happy Winter to all.  http://westsidespirit.com/2010/12/22/steal-this-play/

[Rich -- As I wrote Jean, through the last several years, I'd somehow managed to miss the connection between Jean and Bern.  Now, I know.  Also, Jean sent this in last week, just after I'd sent the newsletter, so sorry the information is delayed.]

From Fran Bellucci Johnson:  Just wanted to let you know I will be in Cathaderal City, California, for a month, beginning January 24th.  I will be staying with my sister, Joanne.
    Aside from sitting out in the sun, I hope to see some potters in the area.  I'm not sure about having a car;  we're still working that out.  And my sister is probably the only person in southern California who doesn't have a computer.  So, if any classmates are in the area, please let me know by phone.  My cell number is:  785-844-0400.

From Neil Guberman:  Hi, all.  My new e-mail addresses are:  neilg9100@verizon.net  AND      neilg2119@yahoo.com.  Effective 1-18-2011  Thanks.

[Rich -- If I had the link, I'd include Robert Fiveson's story about the drinking water shortage in Panama.  But Robert just sent the long article, which I'll include at another time.  Next week, we have a whole series of Valley Stream geography notes, still following up Eric Hilton's question about the Green Acres deli.  Meanwhile, here are a couple of links to an old New York map and to a story about that map, from today's New York Times.]  
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/01/17/nyregion/20110117-map-restoration.html?ref=nyregion

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/nyregion/17map.html

And the usual class links:

The South '65 e-mail addresses:  reunionclass65.blogspot.com

The South '65 photo site:  picasaweb.google.com/SouthHS65 


Rich